Convicted data czar a no-show at Columbus principal's hearing

Wednesday

Aug 6, 2014 at 12:01 AMAug 7, 2014 at 11:37 AM

A former Columbus City Schools principal apparently subpoenaed the district's now-convicted data czar to testify at a hearing where she was fighting the district's efforts to fire her for manipulating data. But he didn't show up.

Bill Bush, The Columbus Dispatch

A former Columbus City Schools principal apparently subpoenaed the district’s now-convicted data czar to testify at a hearing where she was fighting the district’s efforts to fire her for manipulating data. But he didn’t show up.

Darlene Chavers, the attorney for former Linden-McKinley Principal Tiffany L. Chavers, said on Tuesday that she intended to call Steve Tankovich to the stand yesterday. He is the former district data chief who pleaded to a felony count of attempted records tampering last week.

But yesterday morning, a witness didn’t show up and the attorney said she planned to ask a county judge to compel the witness to appear. She wouldn’t name that witness, but Robert “Buzz” Trafford, who is representing the district in the civil-service hearing, confirmed it was Tankovich. Trafford said there appeared to be a dispute over whether Tankovich was properly served a subpoena.

Tankovich has never received a subpoena, said his attorney, Mark C. Collins.

A subpoena for the witness in question was reissued yesterday, said James Dietz, the hearing examiner.

Prosecutors charged that Tankovich created a scheme to have principals withdraw students so that their absences and poor state proficiency test scores wouldn’t count against the district on state report cards.

The district is seeking to fire Chavers, 40, who officials say participated in the data-tampering scheme devised by Tankovich to improve her school’s state academic ratings. She also changed other data, including student grades, records show.

“Ms. Chavers is a scapegoat,” said her attorney, Darlene Chavers.

Tiffany Chavers said she was following her district training and the instructions of her supervisors, and had no duty to investigate whether her instructions were improper. She was required to meet with Tankovich twice at the end of each school year to change data.

Jacqueline Ralls, who at one time oversaw all high schools and was Chavers’ supervisor, testified that her principals were first ordered into Tankovich’s office for meetings in 2005, and if they didn’t go, she would see to it that they attended. But she said she never knew about the data changes; rather, she thought the meetings were to ensure accurate data.

Ralls testified that she couldn’t think of any other reason principals would change data except that Tankovich told them to do it.

In hours of testimony earlier, Deputy Superintendent John Stanford said the district didn’t discipline dozens of other school employees who made data changes. Many of them still work for the district, he said. Some of them have been promoted.

Darlene Chavers pointed out that principals appear at the very bottom of the management chart, but it is four principals who the Columbus Board of Education decided to fire for data-tampering. Where was the “bright line” that Tiffany Chavers crossed that these other district officials did not, Darlene Chavers asked.

Chavers’ actions “far exceeded the established procedures” for changing records, and “that would be the bright line,” Stanford said. Stanford added that many other administrators resigned or retired before they could be fired.

Stanford said he couldn’t discuss parts of what he knew about the misconduct of other officials, because the district investigation into those officials was carried out by Trafford, and his findings are private under attorney-client privilege.

Chavers is one of four principals whom Columbus City Schools moved to fire beginning in late January. Two of the principals stepped down; Chavers and another principal are fighting to keep their jobs. The other protesting principal, Pamela Diggs, who led Marion-Franklin High School, scheduled a similar employment hearing in the fall.

Under Ohio law, licensed educators are entitled to a public hearing to protest their firing. The hearing operates like a trial, and they can compel witnesses to testify under oath and to turn over documents.